Slowly to You
by OfBloodandStarlight
Summary: Barry and Caitlin meet for the first time in Med School. AU. Snowbarry, One-Shot.


_Snowbarry it's the tiniest fandom I've ever been in so I felt compelled to help out with the lack of fics! Here's another tiny baby bit!_

_I don't own The Flash. If I did these two would be canon tomorrow._

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Barry is nineteen the first time he sees her. Fresh into his first day at Med School, he sees her across campus. She's beautiful, he notices (he'd be blind not to), but what really catches his attention it's the fact that even though she's surrendered by people she still manages to look _lonely_ and _guarded._

He doesn't approach her that day, or in the next few months really. She's sort of intimidating to him.

It's kind of an accident really, the way they meet. Barry it's certain she had never seen him before, but he had definitely seen _her_. It's late at night and she's leaning against her dorm's door, she looks like she's shivering and that's the only reason why he dares to even consider approaching her. He tells her lightly, tentatively, "You are gonna catch a cold." And as soon as the words leave his mouth he wants to take them back.

She looks at him once from under her long lashes, he realizes her eyes are of the most beautiful brown he's ever seen, (and where that thought comes from he's not really sure because— because _Iris_ has brown eyes, too. And wasn't he supposed to be in love with _her?_) She shakes her head, that's filled with the most soft-looking brown curls he's seen, lightly, almost imperceptibly and says that she'll be fine. He doesn't push further and instead asks her to at least let him give her his coat.

(She accepts only after the fifth time he asks her).

He sits with her for scarcely two hours, apparently the reason why she's out here it's because her roommate has some _company _over and she, _Caitlin_ it's her name, Caitlin Snow, she doesn't have many places to go.

They bond over terrible roommates, home sickness and their love for science. They don't become immediate friends though, what he had notice from her on their first day had been true; she _was_ a really guarded person.

He tries to get to know her even more so when he realizes it's only her wariness what's holding her back. He needs friends, he tells himself, and that it's all there is to this determination he feels to get closer to her. They have a connection, one he's never really felt with anyone before, not like this.

After they start spending more time together it's when he notices it. She realizes of course, he's staring more than usual. "What is it?" She had asked. He just shrugs, looks her in the eye and says what's been in his mind since the moment he noticed it. "I just noticed you don't smile much."

She runs after that, not instantly of course, she doesn't want to make it look obvious. But he knows, his observations had hit home. She doesn't tell him the reason behind why her smiles are so rare. Not instantly, no. It takes them time, quite a lot really.

It turns out that Caitlin Snow had been hurt a lot of times in her life. Her mother leaving her though, and her ex-boyfriend dying; are the ones that hurt the most, she say. It's been only a year since Ronnie, she'd said, I can't do it again, I'm not ready yet.

They don't talk about it straight out, this thing growing between them. Neither of them felt ready to let go of their past loves yet.

Barry goes home the next Sumer, though, knowing that his unrequited love for his childhood friend it's somehow now a thing of the past. All it had taken was meeting the _right_ person and everything had changed. When he gets home his mother catches on quickly, she's the person that knows him best in the whole world, she, Nora Allen.

(That is the first time the name Caitlin Snow it's mentioned in the Allen household).

It happens two years later, after watching her across campus for the first time. It's almost at the same spot, too. It's late and it's raining heavily, and he has just walked out on her after a heated argument. She walks to him an hour later; his clothes are completely soaked through after being under the rain without any type of cover. When he sees her wet from head to toe and looking more beautiful than it should be allowed to, he can't stop himself anymore.

He stalks towards her and pulls her close, his hands crawling her face, her voice is a broken whisper when she asks him what he is doing, but he doesn't let her finish the thought, "Shhh," He'd whispered, "Stop." Stop fighting it, stop fighting me, stop fighting this, stop fighting _us_, he had added in his kiss.

The first time their lips touched it felt like coming home, like finding something you thought was long gone, like a warm cup of cocoa on a winter night, kissing Caitlin Snow felt like being finally able to touch the sky. And he never wanted to stop.

She tastes sweet but salty at the same time, like too many tears and too much loneliness, like the pain and sorrow of always being left behind. And he wants to kiss it all away, he wants to kiss her better, to kiss every single inch of her until all he can taste it's her happiness, her loving without restrictions.

(It takes them a while but they _do_ get there eventually. Her kisses in the morning taste like black coffee, her kisses during the long days of never ending classes taste like peppermint and just sometimes (on the particularly cheerful days) they'd taste like bubblegum too, and her kisses at nighttime taste like toothpaste. And he loves every single one of them.)

(The second summer the name Caitlin Snow is mentioned on the Allen household it's by a Barry almost unable to hold back his news. His parents are happy for him. Cannot wait to meet the brilliant young woman they have heard so much about.)

Slowly, Caitlin smiling stops being a rare occurrence. She starts to smile, often at silly things, granted they are silly things Barry does just to ensure her smile, and he feels like an idiot when he does it… but then she'd -smile-, sometimes even laugh, and when he sees _that_ beautiful sign… He knows it's all _so_ worth it. She carries the sun in her lips, it shines brighter and more each day, all it takes its one look from him, one kiss, an _I love you_.

Caitlin smiling and laughing it's worth the world and more and though her smiles aren't as rare anymore, not by a long shot, Barry still cherishes and holds dear to his heart every single one of them.

(The third Summer her name it's mentioned it's by a very nervous Caitlin. She introduces herself as, "future Dr. Caitlin Snow". His mother and father love her since second one.)

(The fourth Summer her name it's mentioned it's by a very, very determined Barry. He's made a decision; he just needs his mother's blessing.)

The second Summer Caitlin visits the Allen residence it's by the request of none other but Nora Allen herself. They have a long talk over a brunch date to which Barry it's not invited. It's after Caitlin has already left that his mother hugs him, kisses both his checks and, in the tender voice she used to use when he was just a boy, she says softly, "I think your Grandma's ring will fit her perfectly."

_Fin_

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**_Review?_**


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